This week marks the 16th anniversary of the launch of Star Trek Voyager on UPN. Marking the occasion, Kate Mulgrew is talking about her time as Captain Janeway, and also about what’s new in Star Trek, including explaining why she hasn’t seen the latest Star Trek movie. .

Star Trek Voyager has a loyal fanbase, but the show is often ranked in fan polls behind other series. Talking to the official Star Trek site, Mulgrew discussed this status as being the "other show":

How overlooked and/or underestimated did you feel Voyager was back when it was on the air?

Mulgrew: When we were doing it? That’s a hard one to answer, honestly. I was so busy and I was just so immersed in the show. But I know what you’re asking. There’s a perception about Voyager. I guess, comparatively speaking, we didn’t get the same attention that Next Gen got. But I thought that was just a product of the beginning of what might be called saturation (of the Star Trek franchise). In terms of quality comparisons? Who cares? I did the best I could. We all did the best we could.

Mulgrew also talked about how producers introduced the sexy Borg character Seven of Nine for Voyager’s fourth season:

How hard was it for you, personally, when, in the middle of the show’s run, Jeri Ryan arrived on the set to play Seven of Nine?

Mulgrew: I found that that was hard, Jeri notwithstanding. Certainly, I could see with my own eyes that she was a va-va-va-voom and beautiful-beautiful bombshell of a girl. Sexuality was brought into Voyager, and that’s what I resented. I chose not to use sexuality. I thought that if Paramount and UPN and Rick (Berman) were being exceptionally prescient and brave, they would give a woman a shot at commanding without sex. “Can we do this without sex?” There are always other ways. So I resented that and I was hurt by the immediate, extraordinary attention given to this character. The numbers went up. And I thought, “Ah, you can’t argue with a business decision and you can’t argue with sex.” That’s just part of life, but all of that is very difficult for a woman, particularly an actress like me. But it had nothing to do with Jeri.

Mulgrew also revealed that she has yet to see the 2009 Star Trek movie. She explained her reasons:

Was that on purpose or do you just not see many movies?

Mulgrew: I think both. I think both. I think I just kept saying, “I will, I will,” and I didn’t. And there’s a reason why. I guess I just didn’t want to. Everyone said it was great and I’m sure it was. But… it’s a huge thing to be the captain in the Star Trek franchise. You get saturated. There’s a part of me that just wants to hold that in my memory, and it’s enough.

For more from Mulgrew see both parts of her interview: Part 1 & Part 2.

Comments

She never played captain of the Enterprise. She played the captain of a smaller starship, in a different time period, called Voyager. So she can’t watch a reboot of the original series (which she ows much) because she is still immersed in her actually being, well… ONE of the many captains in the Star Trek franchise. Talk about taking herself way too seriously. Get a life, lady. This really is a head scratcher…

As far as this sexuality thing goes, it is totally stupid, almost inhuman, to ignore sexuality. What – is she saying that because she is captain, if she had a (sexual) relationship with someone (so that’s why she had to be married), she’d somehow be a lesser captain? Of course, we had this BS about Kirk being “married to the Enterprise”. Good God, when are these people going to grow up?

Please – Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, JJ Abrams? – Could we please have some sanity and maturity to be able to embrace our human sexuality as it should be. The last thing I want to see is another lonely but loving horndog of a captain (Kirk) who wants to but can’t because… PLEASE!!!!!!

I think fans (and new audiences) need to see every show in it’s own period.
TOS was great, but got cancelled and got cult status with the fans. You can’t beat that.
But most of the TOS fans now have grandchildren and when théy watch TOS, it’s a whole new ballgame.

That also goes for TNG; they got (in the late 80’s & early 90’s) a huge new fanbase, with very loyal fans.

The ‘saturation’ story begins in 1994: DS9 wasn’t picing up great in the beginning and VOY was created to let the TNG fans hang on to Star Trek.

The concept of VOY is sheer genius: creator Gene Roddenberry desgined TOS as “to boldly go where no one has gone before”. So, TOS had Earth as a homebase and went out, to discover.

VOY reversed that entire concept; call it a ‘Lost in space’ concept for Star Trek. A ship gets lost far away from home and tries hard to get back home to Earth again.

That reversed concept, together with a familiair sort-of TNG feeling, that was the success for VOY.
The saturation factor was the overlap with DS9 for 5 seasons at least. And where VOY got Seven of Nine, to combat with series like Xena, Hercules etc., DS9 had to fight against Babylon 5. DS9 threw in lots and lots of battle-action with the Dominion and got better from thát.

But a woman as captain (Kate Mulgrew has proven that, not only to women, but also to men) in a hard situation, lost in space, and getting a Borg as passenger, not to mention the other fine cast that they picked, thát made VOY special. Reversing Gene’s theme was brilliant and again:

for that period in time, it was the best sci-fi we could see.

Star Trek 2009 was another brilliant move on the part of J.J. Abrams. He got the best writers of this century around him, listened very carefully to his staff and to the fans, and did excellent work in rebooting the franchise.
Star Trek 2009 was fun again, and that’s what important to a frinchise as Star Trek: not only make money, but entertain and pick up new fans along the way.

I remember VOY very well as my favorite Trek show. I still look regurarly on dvd and i still enjoy it. Kate is still my #1 captain of them all, and i’m certain when my daughter is old enough, there are more movies and maybe even new shows on the air and that she looks at me and says: “Voyager the best Trek?!?”. But i don’t mind.

The Star Trek family is a large one and it still grows. We can all be Trek fans without having to argue about things like “what series the best is”. After all, it ‘s all Trek and that’s what real fans always keep in mind. Trekkers are a big happy familiy and we welcome new fans around the globe every week. Thát’s what i like about Star Trek.

Kate Mulgrew sounds a litlle jealous when she talks about bringing Seven (Jerri Ryan) in the show. Yet she acknowledges that it worked. Look they treated the Seven character with respect and intelligence. There was always plotlines about Seven searching for her humanity. We also learned more about the Borg. So it was successful decision by the much maligned Rick Berman..

As far as introducing sex into Star Trek, well from the original series and on, Star Trek has had a lot of sex in it.. That does not demean women. Star Trek blazed paths for women in television. You had Uhura as a bridge officer. And during the show there were intelligent women., see Lt. Areel Shaw (“Couurt Martial”), Then the next four series featured intelligent women also. From Dr. Crusher to Dax to T’Pol and of course, Captain Janeway. Sex and equality are not exclusive..

I always liked Voyager. Great show. There was quality in all five series. And that opening title sequence with Jerry Goldsmith’s theme! It makes you want to explore the stars.

voyager is ties with DS9 as my favorite series, with TNG being the first, simply because of the extraordinary care that went into it (after season 2). i love voyager, but there will always be things about it that bother me. TNG was the “continuing mission” of a ship named Enterprise, as i think trek should be whenever possible. DS9 was different but it had its purpose in the star trek universe. it brought the topics of race and religion and war and peace into the franchise like no other series could have.

what did voyager do? it began as a lost in space type story (a concept that didn’t last is its entirety) and it ended up a sexy show with lots of action and borg-killing. but nothing that happened in voyager really had any impact on anything that was happening elsewhere on star trek. i think the series crew realized that, and that’s why they stopped taking themselves quite as seriously. they gave us the lone starship vs. the galaxy style action that we didn’t get in the many action scenes of DS9, and they gave us something new to star trek. we saw families and friendships forming, and we saw sexual tension, and that’s where voyager excelled. that’s what made it a good show.

i’ve heard people bring up things like the many shuttlecraft and photon torpedoes that seemed to suddenly appear on voyager out of thin air, and i’ve heard people complain that it was far too easy for voyager to defeat the borg. but who cares! voyager was touching and exciting, voyager was different enough to be unique, but familiar enough that it didn’t feel strange. and most importantly voyager fun!

as for kate’s attitude in the interview, i can understand her position to a point. seven of nine got far too much attention than she needed. the only thing that really saved the story was the fact that there was typically another character (usually janeway) who shared the spotlight with seven each week. but i can understand why this might have caused some tension. i think kate was and still is being very mature about the subject, more so than many actors would be. i, however, don’t understand her attitude toward the new movie. buy the frickin’ DVD and take a couple of hours. after all, when everything boils down, it’s just a movie.

So what if Majel Barrett also had a problem with Seven of Nine. The fact that these two OLDER women had a problem with this beautiful YOUNG woman who happened to ooze sensuality is surely their problem. I’m afraid Kate Mulgrew has left me with a quite a sour taste in my mouth, for more than one reason.

The fact is that people like Jeri Ryan’s character have always had to put up with the envy/jealously of other women. Seven of Nine was simply born that way. So Jeri Ryan should not have been cast because she was too attractive and appealed to most heterosexual males. Sexuality is part of life and to ignore it is beyond stupid. Shame on Majel Barrett and Kate Mulgrew. This attitude is so discriminatory, and please, don’t tell me it did not have anything to do with Jeri Ryan. I mean – look at her, even when she is not wearing that stupid Starfleet uniforms they forced women in those shows to wear

I thought the way they dealt with the whole area of Seven of Nine discovering her human side, including the beauty of her physical appearance and her sensuality/sexuality, was one of the better, more interesting, and at times very funny, aspects of the show.

4. assimilator47
>>And where VOY got Seven of Nine, to combat with series like Xena, Hercules etc., DS9 had to fight against Babylon 5. DS9 threw in lots and lots of battle-action with the Dominion and got better from thát.

How interesting a comparison you just drew. VOY battling trashy fantasy action series and DS9 against one of the thoughtful and well constructed SF sagas. This, I guess, tells us everything about the quality of both shows :)

@keachick, See a lot of women feel degraded when they are treated as just sex objects, for women to be hired solely on their looks is highly degrading and disrespectful. It’s hard for them to be taken seriously in their line of work, when they only get hired because of their looks. As Jeri Ryan’s hiring on the show, she was just a piece of ass to the executives she was hired for no other reason. You could see how hard she worked to try to be taken seriously as a real actor on the show. The way they didn’t dress her just got all the Star Trek viewers to un zip their pants, the way her breast were dressed, were done exactly to get a rise out of the fan base.;) Even the way woman in TNG were depicted as good little doting women. The short skirts on the TOS have been duly noted over the years as being sexist, which has been reprised in the 2009 film. Star Trek has always evolved with the times, and for it to go backwards is an insult to our understandings. I’m sure a lot of the cast was upset with the reason of Jeri’s inclusion on the show that they couldn’t carry the show on their own respectfully. The new Star Trek movie is just more of that mainstream shallowness, of we only hire actors that are really good looking and they take their clothes off a lot! Lame attempts at forcing drama, who can we kill off and what planets can we destroy for a heightened a dramatic response from the audience.

I actually agree with Mulgrew. I am a red
blooded male and I was around 20 years old when Ryan was hired. I was the target audience, but I hated the character. Growing up I got to like ST because it seemed more intelligent and moral than other show on Tv at the time. It had a respect for itself, a dignity. I felt that was dumped when Seven of Nine came on that show.

I am not a big fan of Voyager. I think it suffered from poor writing and weak characters despite having a wonderful premise. It failed where TNG & TOS succeeded in not having engaging and well rounded characters and also where both these, and also DS9, by having intelligent and thoughtful stories. That said, VOY is still notable for being the first show of it’s kind to have a female leader and women have for so long been viewed as sec objects. Here was a chance to show a woman of strength and ability. For me it was a huge “F you” to women to turn the show into a masturbation fantasy for young men. They may have gotten away with it had the character looked more Borg like and had not worn tight cat suits. But the “Baywatch in space” look screamed a huge message to those more intelligent members of the audience that the studio felt that all we needed to be entertained was a pair of boobs and an ass.

Kate Mulgrew may have intentionally played her without sexuality, but it is because she knows that she is in no way able to pull that off. There is nothing sexual about her in anything else she’s played, either. It’s too bad she’s a horrible actress as well.

For centuries women have been fighting so as to being treated equal to men, than just being depicted as sex objects and good little girls, nowadays everything is going completely in the opposite direction. Violence and war is being herald as good, as well as hate and bigotry all is under the guise of morality. So how are we going to get to the stars?

@David C. Roberson I always thought of Kate as being very attractive, she had to play it strait, she’s a captain none the less. The captain has a responsibility to hold up the highest level of morality and self control, and respectability.

I love it all. I also wish sex had never been used in a negative way. Because of the objectifying nature of sex, strong and beautiful women get recognized for thewrong thing. It’s like being rich and never k owing if you are loved for you or your money. A beautiful woman never knows if she is being recognized for her intellect or just because the guy is patronizing her to get in her pants. Some women don’t care and use it to their advantage, but many are not willing to prostitute themselves. I don’t know what the answer is.

I actually like Seven of Nine, the character, as played by Jeri Ryan. I agree that her unitard outfit is lame and too revealing not to be seen as purely gratuitous. However, I thought the stories built around Seven of Nine were WAY more interesting than those built around Kes.

I liked 7 of nine and of course they put her in because of her looks . All those that rant about that though, should really rewatch TOS or any other series with mini skirts or all aliens wearing even less.
I liked the character also because of the fact that she is a member of the arch enemie. She was part of the always present enemy/outsider looking into the general society of the franchise.

Each to his own, I suppose. And no disrespect to Kate, as an actress, or a lady. But I really couldn’t stand Voyager. After DS9, which was itself a step down from TNG, the quality of Trek reached a nadir. Voyager was unoriginal. The characters were recycled and generic. There was little connection between Voyager and prior Trek; and, I felt, little love of prior Trek. The stories were, again, rehashed, worse versions of what came before. They ruined the Borg. Worse of all, the dialogue was awful: replete with technobable. The only novel feature of Voyager was that the Captain was a woman. However, I’m not sexist; so, I don’t see any advantage or merit in our having a female captain: black, white, man, woman, it’s irrelevant. Some might say that the inclusion of a hologram and the ship journeying home were novel. But they were copied straight from classic British space comedy-drama Red Dwarf. I’m sorry, but I genuinely can’t find anything I like about Voyager. I suppose the theme song was quite good; but that’s really not enough…

PS. I think Ent. was pretty much as bad.

My favourites:

TNG (10/10. One of the best TV shows ever; shame about the films…)

DS9 (8/10. Ahead of its time with the terrorism theme. A good change of style. Interesting characters.)

TOS (7/10. Some of the best episodes in Trek. But the average is not as high as DS9 and TNG: there are many shockers. But a truly revolutionary and visionary show. Difficult to judge a ’60s product.)

It keeps suprising me that so many Star Trek Fans are so full of anger, i thought the theory of IDIC or whatever would get through to more. of course those who squeak the loudest are not always representative of the true population…
Nonetheless, personally I have problems with the writing of Voyager, yet I have friends who think it is the best show.
The point is we get along.
Can’t we all live and let live?

Shatner has said he’s seen the film and that he liked it. He also went about as far as Shatner does in complementing another actor: here, Pine.
And you can understand why he was reluctant to see the film. He’s been this character for four decades; in many ways, he is Star Trek. No disrespect to Kate, but the same is not true for her. I don’t think Kate wants to see it because she knows it will be good and put her Trek to shame. (Though, little if any of the blame for Voyager is Kate’s).

I feel bad for you. If you dislike DS9 that much, you’re missing out. It’s part of the best of Trek, with far better character development and arcing storylines that get you invested more than an episodic show ever could.

Voyager strayed more from other Treks not so much for having a sexy Borgette… but, for aiming squarely for a Star Wars audience. Gee, what a sin. Same as the Trek movies STILL do. In truth, the writing was not much less good that TOS, but it hit more dull eps than any series before. Enterprise hit “high action/ low interest” eps a lot more.

Why all the anger and cheap shots at the lady? The thing many Trek fans here seem not to grasp is that Trek is not the center of life for every actor that participated in its production. Voyager was something Mulgrew did in her career, she likes what she did, she resented the intrusion of pointless, sensationalist sexuality merely for the sake of ratings into the work she offered, and now all of that is in her past.

She hasn’t seen the reboot. So what? That’s her prerogative. The characters in the Trek universe mean a great deal more to Trek fans than they actors who portrayed them, in many cases. And when that fact is manfested in reality, out come the fangs of some of the fandom….geeez…. Mulgrew was a nice actress and she did a nice job in Voyager, and her assessment of it being in the midst of “Trek saturation” is spot-on. Kudos to her.

Reminds me a lot of Christopher Lloyd’s reaction to being in the Trek universe for TSFS: It was a nice deal, he was “glad to be a part of Trek,” but it wasn’t some life-changing thing for him. It was a part, a job, one that professional pride demanded the best effort they could give, but once it was done, it was done.

Voyager was a decent TV show, and for some odd reason it captured my interest longer than some of the other Trek spinoffs of the era, but I had lost interest by the time it was over and they (Berman?) had given it the idiotic ending with which it was sentenced..

#33 — What about all the dreadfully dull Ferengi family episodes, or the ones about Odo’s uninteresting struggles to fit in, or the yawn-worthy Bajoran religious/political issues. I like certain DS9 episodes well enough, but I too have to rank it lowest of the 5. No need to get all patronizing about it. DS9 is still Star Trek, I watched all of it, and I’d rather see it than any crappy Babylon 5 episode….

Everyone blasted him for not seeing the movie for so long and the gracious Kate Mulgrew has now explained why as a Captain in a franchise it was so hard to do. Plus, Shatner is THE Captain of the Star trek franchise.

I don’t want to hear one more negative comment about Bill Shatner ever again!

Anywho, I understand Mulgrew’s point of view. They should have let Seven gradually become human in the physical sense at the same time that she asserted her personality over a period spanning two seasons or so and nixed the catsuit. Seeing her skin become pink, her hair grow and her implants slowly being removed would have been cooler (and made more sense) than ”HEY, I’M A BABE!”

Favorite series? Let the dollar speak:
I own every Star Trek series on DVD, including both Original and Remastered versions of TOS, all the movies, and a host of documentaries and ephemera. This even includes double dipping in VHS and LaserDisc. Paramount has made ALOT of money off of me over the years…

I loved Enterprise far more than Voyager. I love Voyager but its the most bubblegummy, and with the Doctor and Neelix I almost threw up in my mouth a bit. DS9 was far better.

It has become rather upsetting how many Star Trek actors do no care for Star Trek beyond their acting in it. My favorite Star Trek actor is still Levar Burton, because he was a Star Trek fan before TNG, he was a fan during TNG, and he is a fan now, bless him.

Voyager had a great idea, just poorly written. By the end of the show, Voyager should have looked just like the Battlestar Galactica…beaten to junk ready to fall apart. No building Delta Fliers, etc. The Borg were turned into ding dongs, which was lame too.

Biggest POOR writing issue….7 year ENSIGN Harry Kim. Nuff said.

DS9 was amazing, but I’m pretty sure that B5 creator JMS could have gone on with his lawsuit against Paramount (being that he pitched his B5 bible to Paramount way before DS9, and they were very similar). Still, what an amazing ride of a show…just wish the Dominion War battles were done up more in the later seasons.

TNG was great, but I got annoyed real fast the with constant technology bailout to solve a problem and over Political Correctness. Still, a great, great show. Riker was the Kirk of the TNG era.

TOS IS STAR TREK! Love it, even when it was utter camp crap (large part of Season 3). Kirk, Spock and McCoy were and always will be my favorite 3 fictional characters of all time.

@ 40: I hear ya. I have all three seasons of TOS (Original DVD/Remastered DVD/Blu-Ray), all the Motion Pictures, and all 7 Seasons of DS9.

I have not bought any TNG because they are hard to find in stores for a good price. I thought about going online, but I”m waiting for the blu-ray “remastered” release when it happens.

I will not buy a single season of Voyager or Enterprise. I liked some season 4 episodes of Enterprise, but the show just bugged me from day one. If you are going to have a TOS prequel with a ship called Enterprise, why not have the adventures of Robert April and the original Enterprise. URGH!!!!

I agree with Mulgrew: Voyager was the just saturating the “Star Trek” brand and the point of its arrival. Jane way was a good role model, but 7 of 9 was a throwback for women. Yes, she was eye candy, but her outfits left very little to the imagination.

I liked the original premise and the cast of Voyager. The characters were alright, but often mediocre. I agree, bad stories and bad writing are what did this show in. There was so much potential here, but it never happened.

I thought Kate Mulgrew did a fine job. Her portrayal of Janeway was believable — a strong, tough woman. If she had any issues with the show, it’s really her business. It seems only natural that she would want to protect her interests, if she felt her position was in jeopardy.
As for Jeri Ryan, I think she made the best of what she had to work with in the role of Seven. It was blatantly obvious the producers were saying, “Look! Star Trek has some T & A!,” and the character didn’t have much of a personality that allowed any real acting. Mostly, however, I didn’t like that she had anything to do with the Borg, and I wished VOY never had anything to do with the Borg. Talk about milking a cow. By the time VOY was over, the Borg should have been renamed The Bored and put out of their collective misery.
C’mon, every Star Trek series is guilty of some bad stuff. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think VOY at its worst, was any crappier than any of the other series at their worst. I prefer to focus on the good things about each series and do my best to ignore the bad.

People are busy criticising Kate over her opposition to bringing in a sexy character (Seven Of Nine) to boost the show’s ratings.

But what botheres me is after she is asked if “Voyager” was trying to follow in the footsteps of “The Next Generation”.

“In terms of quality comparisons? Who cares?”

Well, quality does matter for some of us, Kate. “Voyager” was inconsistent in that department, especially when compared to TNG and “Deep Space Nine”, both of which improved greatly after the first couple of seasons. Both shows are still highly regarded, along with TOS of course. “Voyager” had its best seasons during four and five. Seasons six and seven were boring, and “Endgame” was a poor man’s “All Good Things…”.

You know, one thing I have always tried to figure out is “when did I lose interest in Star Trek?” ,I don’t know if this relates to anything in this article. Maybe it has to do with the saturation comment Mulgrew made. Anyway, here is a fans’ thoughts':

Well, I figured it out. I never lost interest in “Star Trek” (Kirk, Spock, McCoy et al. or Picard, Riker, Data et al….and no this not going to be bashing comment directed at the other series). I can watch those series over and over again. However, while I have watched all eroththe series during their runs, I feel no need to watch them again. It’s not that I don’t like them, but if I have a choice between any of them I’m going to pick TOS or TNG over the other series any day.

While the later series were all well-produced there was just something about them that did not lend themselves to timelessness for me. The way they were filmed (lit, camera work etc), the music (The atonal music that just sounded like sonic wallpaper), the A-B-C plots that never related to each other etc. and the technobabble (TNG suffered from this in its’ last year and it really took over in the later series.). They just seemed “routine”. I enjoyed each series for what they were and watched each series all the way through. However, as far memorability goes, a year after DS9, VOY and ENT ended I couldn’t point to one piece of dialog, scene, or piece of music that made me say, “I need to watch that AGAIN!”

“Star Trek” and “Star Trek: The next Generation” had moments that were extremely memorable (good and bad). “The City of the Edge of Forever”, “The Doomsday Machine” even “Spocks’ Brain” are all shows that are just classic in some form Good and bad). TNG had “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and “The Best of Both Worlds” which I would consider some of the best episodes ever. But the later series….well, I can’t think of any shows where I can recite the dialog, hum the incidental music, or draw a picture of a scene like I used to do when I daydreamed in my 7th grade English class.

This is just an opinion…though I don’t know if I’ve made much sense. But, I was just trying to throw it out there. Feel free to agree or disagree.

As I said, discrimination because a woman has a good figure (to most people) and larger than usual breasts and is also intelligent. The sort of stuff that has been posted here by some of you has just proved my point.

Next, we’ll hear that Jeri Ryan has had a breast reduction, and not for medical reasons. Poor woman. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I think it is this sort of sh*te that belittles women and refuses to take them seriously. Shame on you. You poor people, so you couldn’t get past her figure and her breasts. Boy, the Paramount suits (or whatever studio made ST:Voyager) certainly saw you lot coming…Cripes.

I still find it amusing how people get their undies all twisted up over sex in Trek. Its always been there – even from the beginning. TOS is awash in it. Adding Seven With Two to Voyager was a great business decision. It jumped started a series that was languishing and got the attention of all the hormonal Trekkers. Not to mention that Kes was UTTERLY BORING and the frequent Neelix episodes made me want to scratch my eyes out.

TOS (10/10) You just don’t criticize the Holy Scriptures of Trekdom.
DS9 (9/10) A great series that doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
TNG (8/10) The only reason it doesn’t get higher is because of its gawd awful first season.
VOY (7/10) I spent the first two or three seasons obsessed with Janeways bun of steel hairdo – I hated it that much. And the Kazon. Blech. And Kes. Yawn. What happened to the Maquis?
Ent (5/10) Lost opportunity. The 4th season kicked a$$ – if only the series had began there. I still mourn for what could have been.

#59 – Yep. And they slathered some blue jelly all over each other. THAT was gratuitous. I liked it though.
My feelings are uncertain as far as Enterprise is concerned. The first two seasons were largely forgettable though it was still OK tv entertainment. As a lifelong Trek fan I was perpetually frustrated with their story choices. Season 3 was pretty good though I didn’t like wiping out most of central Florida. Season 4 as I stated above was Trek nirvana.

To be honest with everyone, I saw a lot of sexual tension between Janeway and Chakotay….there were times when I really thought they would cross the line, but it never happened , except the one time when they had to be quarantined on an alien planet until a cure was found for a disease they had contracted….they almost or maybe they did consummate the relationship… because as Chakotay is giving her a neck massage, they look at each other longingly and the camera cuts from them…so some imagination is left to the viewer…

Oh come on, we all know Seven was a cheap attempt to lure hormonal teenage boys into Voyager (and to get Brannon Braga a girlfriend). And hey, it worked! So Enterprise was prepared with T’Pol right from the get go. It’s silly to ignore such an obvious bit of pandering. That decontamination scene in Enterprise? Oi vey, they may as well have had a saxophone playing in the background.

Mulgrew is just acknowledging that fact. Seven was brought on because they weren’t scoring with the 18-25 demographic. When she mentions a lack of sex with regard to her character, I read it as not making sexuality the point of her character, much like Picard’s romantic dalliances were few and far between. She wanted to be respected as a commanding officer first and foremost.

After reading all these hostile comments about how awlful Voyager was, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of these comments have come from make trekkers….you guys have a real problem with a woman at the helm…as much as I loved Kirk, and Picard….it took even me a while to adjust to a female captain…but once I began to watch the show , I saw how intelligent and wise she portrayed Janeway….it really made me proud to watch her…and as far as Star Trek 11 being more superior to Voyager….oh please give me a break…it was just a glorified Star Wars movie for you boys….Each captain brought a different personality to Star Trek including Captain Archer…he portrayed a stiff no nonsense captain, but as the show progressed and he developed the character with heach episode, he also became a favorite of mine….You only get our of a movie what you look for…and I chose to look for the best in each one..and the by the way, Voyager was my all time favorite show and I have the dvd series and watch them twice a year…never get tired of the lessons learned….

After reading all these hostile comments about how awlful Voyager was, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of these comments have come from male trekkers….you guys have a real problem with a woman at the helm…as much as I loved Kirk, and Picard….it took even me a while to adjust to a female captain…but once I began to watch the show , I saw how intelligent and wise she portrayed Janeway….it really made me proud to watch her…and as far as Star Trek 11 being more superior to Voyager….oh please give me a break…it was just a glorified Star Wars movie for you boys….Each captain brought a different personality to Star Trek including Captain Archer…he portrayed a stiff no nonsense captain, but as the show progressed and he developed the character with heach episode, he also became a favorite of mine….You only get our of a movie what you look for…and I chose to look for the best in each one..and the by the way, Voyager was my all time favorite show and I have the dvd series and watch them twice a year…never get tired of the lessons learned….

Maybe I completely misunderstood the article but I kind of get the feeling that Mulgrew is just a little upset that the series she worked so hard on for seven years is considered by most people to be the beginning of the fall of Star Trek, to the point that they had to bring in a new sexier character just to beef up ratings and ultimately the franchise needing to be rebooted. If I was in her shoes I probably be upset too even to the point where I would refuse to watch the movie too.
Voyager is my least favorite Star Trek series but it has nothing to do with her. After reading this article I respect her because I think it shows the love and care she had for the show.
I don’t know. Maybe I am totally off the wall but that is what I got out of the article.

Joe, I read into that also….she did put a lot of love and care into the Janeway character….but Voyage was a different take from the other Star Trek series…those series, with the exception of DS9 were about the ‘Voyages of the starship Enterprise’…..Voyager was a totally different take and many of the hard core trekkers feel it should not have been included or associated with Star Trek because it was not Enterprise….I have been a trekker since TOS and found it so refreshing to have another starship with a different name and a different type of captain and mission….still 7 years is a long time for a Star Trek show..and ironically as much as the majority of posters trash it, it was renewed each year for 7 years…that is a really long time for a TV series….I loved it and learned so much from watching it…oh and by the way, NG lasted 7 years also…so Voyager is in good company….

Poor Kate must of passed out when she watched the season opener of “Enterprise” with the now infamous decontamination room scene between T’Pol and Trip. That made Seven of Nine look like someone dressed in a burka.

Enterprise was the most “sexual” of the series, and I guess Voyager opened the door for that. I enjoyed Enterprise for other reasons (and disliked the heavy sexuality that was used throughout), but always thought that those scenes kept more viewers away. That’s why I stopped watching StarGate Universe and BG. It gets to be distracting after a while.

As regards Kate not wanting to watch the film becasue she feels she has moved on, I’d say fair enough. But next time she has a tax return and books herself into a convention, I’d like to ask her again about her “moving on”.

And as regards the predictable Trekkie anti-sex and OTT feminism being spewed from some of you….yawn. Give me a break. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations…there IS room for sex in Star Trek, and whatever the intentions of the execs/producers in introducing Jeri Ryan, she did the best job she could and she transcended the big boobed blonde in lycra thing. Like someone above pointed out, the discovery of her human side, her emotions AND her sexuality were all handled very sensitively and creatively. She was also incredibly intelligent and many women (the kind who don’t have a big jealous streak that is) felt she was empowering the female sex, no less than Janeway was.

The fact I can speak so well of Voyager and still have it at the bottom of my list speaks volumes for how good this ‘franchise’ is.

@ Captain Kathryn: I am so glad to see that you are saying some of the most positive things about Voyager after some of the rather harsh criticism I’ve seen here.

And to others who support Voyager —> :)

What I found most intruiging about Voyager was the journey and also how morally strong a character Janeway was.

In the episode “Equinox” she stuck to principle and said one of the greatest Voyager lines in my opinion:
“It’s never easy. But if we turn our backs on our principles, we stop being human.”
To me, that really sums up the moral commitment that she had to Starfleet protocol in the Delat Quadrant, she refused to give up morals for selfish desire. To me, that takes character.

My ranking of the series:

VOY & TNG: 9/10 both great series with a few little bumps here and there.
TOS: 7/10 I will admit that I have not seen many episodes of the original but episodes such as “The City on the Edge of Forever” were brilliant.
DS9: 7/10 Decent series with some quality episodes but I’ll admit I didn’t completely get into the Dominion War.
ENT: 6/10 Not terrible, just didn’t really grab at me.

I see a lot of comments here, and to be honest, I haven’t read any of them. What I wanted to post was that I worked on the Paramount Lot during the run of Star Trek Voyager. I was in the licensing department in the Marathon office building. During the filming of “Scorpion Part II”, I had a meeting when Kate Mulgrew for her to look over and approve her likeness for the Hallmark Christmas ornament. I met her by stage nine, and she and I went to her trailer because she needed to take a quick break after filming. I have to admit that I was like a kid in a candy store. I’ve been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember (am currently 41 years old) and I had met most of the casts of all of the Trek shows/films in my stint working on the lot. This particular meeting with Kate was a first for me. Not only was it my first meeting with her, but it was the first time that I had met a cast member in costume. It felt kinda strange because it wasn’t like I was talking to Kate Mulgrew, but Captain Janeway! I have to say that of ALL of the Trek cast members I had met, Kate was the nicest. We only had a brief conversation, but Mrs Mulgrew, if you’re reading this blog, I want to let you know that that brief meeting is one of my fondest memories from my time spent at Paramount. Thank you.

Voyager wasn’t too bad, but the writing was tired. The same was true with Enterprise, until Manny Coto and the later episodes. But by then it was too late. It’s easy to blame saturation, but the stories didn’t excite anymore. A lot of it was the same ol’ plot devices and gimmicks and sermons tossed in a blender, over and over again.

TOS had tones of sexual content… TNG did not have that much sexual content… DS9 had jadzia but not really that sexual… Other trek franchises showed it could be done with out the sex factor… Voyager needed some spice…. I loved voyager before 7 of 9 but once i watched a few eppisodes and was used to her i was even happier that they brought her on. Sexuality is ok in tv. Voyager did good with out it for 3 years. But they excelled with it.

Well, Matthew given you rhetoric rants against Voyager and your elemetary school yard language, I would put you at #6 on your little list….I’ve been a trekker since the 60’s, so I do know the difference ……

*Sigh* For many years, any new “Trek” episode had to be appointment television for me; Voyager’s second season was when that began to change. And while Kate Mulgrew isn’t entirely off-base about over-saturation, in truth the majority of commenters here are correct when they point out that the show rarely realized the potential of an interesting premise. Ron Moore nailed it when he pointed out that Voyager’s main issue was that in its heart-of-hearts, it wanted to be TNG–a problem that only got worse with Enterprise.

I’ve always thought Captain Janeway’s best moments came in the extended 2 hour/part episodes. “Scorpion”, “Caretaker”, “Basics”, “Year Of Hell”, “Dark Frontier” and “Equinox” all featured Janeway at her best with some of Kate Mulgrew’s finest acting.

#75

So, you didn’t like Jeri Ryan’s ass? And that was why you didn’t bother with the show? And you assumed that other black people shared that sentiment? Wow!

There are plenty of reasons to not like “Voyager”, but your reason was stupid and shallow.

I realize in comparison to other Star Trek series, Voyager probably wasn’t the best. However, I really liked the show and it is probably my 2nd favorite because it was my childhood show. I grew up watching Voyager and eagerly anticipated every new episode. Deep Space Nine became my favorite when I went back and watched the series when I was older and could appreciate the storytelling that was a little over my head when I was younger. Still, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Voyager no matter what anyone says about it.

I chose “5th Favorite” only because there wasn’t an option for “Despised that show with every fiber of my being & thought it was an insult to the good name of Star Trek.” Could you try to include that one next time, Anthony? >;)

31. You’re surprised? After reading updates on this website ever since before the movie came out, I’m convinced that we’ve got one of the most intelligent, but narrowest-minded fan bases of any franchise that exists.

I know we care, and we want our beloved Trek to be the best it can be, but at some point, it’s so easy to just care too much, when fandom borders on fundamentalism – and yes, I mean “fundamentalism” in the same way as it’s used in discussions of politics and war. Much of what I see here is either trolling or bordering on trolling.

Gene would be so disappointed in us. Of everything he tried to teach us, open-mindedness was among the most important. I usually try to hold back from commenting here in order to not make anything worse, but I am beginning to feel like we’ve failed him. No, worse than failed him, because we either refuse to admit as much or don’t even believe it. We’re hypocrites.

Nx Brannon Braga and Rick Berman failed him AND us, we did our best telling them it was crap but they just wouldnt listen.

Hell if it wasnt for Ira Steven Behr heading up DS9 while they were preoccupied with Voyager Trek would have died long before Nemesis and S4 of enterprise

and yet again when they finally stepped down during S3/ S4 of enterprise and gave it over to Manny Coto the writing noticeably jumped in quality and rivialed even some of the best writing of the tng and ds9 episodes.

so Branon and Berman are to blame for all this, not the bloody fan base nx!

Rarely truly great, rarely truly awful, I go to Voyager when I want to spend some light-hearted quality time with old friends. No other Trek captured the familial vibe of the Voyager crew. And it was very good.

Worf on TNG was background character, but on DS9, he had lots and lots of sex with Jadzia.

Seven never got laid at all, IIRC… Just a big tease.

That was the problem with VOY over all, it was all just a big tease…

I imagined finding the Borg homeword, something heroic happening, creating an alliance in the DQ, something better than the lame eps we did get.

Turning into lizards and getting restored? TNG did that with Geordie and that was still lame.

Nazis? Come on!

They ran out of ideas early, and went all marysue on us. Some of the best eps were JW just trying to keep the crew together. Kind of a Das Boot Trek. Instead, we find Amelia Erhart? Why? Whatfor? What was the point of that?

I completely dismissed Voyager when it first aired; I checked out the first few episodes and drifted away quickly.
However, over the course of last year year I watched almost the entire series, and, taken out of its ’90’s context as the “turning point of Star Trek’s oversaturation”, I’m actually finding it fresh and exciting. Why?

-the improved effects allowed it to do things TNG never could (or would?); eg. visit a waterworld, or crash on an ice planet and get sealed below the surface.

– putting the Maquis characters onboard and shooting them off into the Delta Quadrant opened up more “loose use” of Roddenberry’s Trek Rules – like the Original Series (and for the most part, unlike TNG), characters could go off the hook and disobey Starfleet protocol, be racist jerks, etc. (eg. Lon Suder, or that guy who hated Cardassians in the same way the guy hated Romulans in TOS’s ‘Balance of Terror’).

– while the characters only really clicked with each other once in a blue moon (eg. big epics like ‘Year of Hell’, or even quieter episodes like ‘Riddles’), they generally, due to their situation, displayed genuine comraderie – the TNG characters. for the most, part, just came off like they worked in the same office building. That said, in the later seasons, Voyager layed on the “we’re a family” twaddle a little thick.

Now, I do LOVE TNG and TOS, and consider them consumate examples of excellent televison storytelling. Voyager doesn’t display the class of either, but I’m still glad it was around to watch when I reached my *own* rerun saturation point with TNG and TOS.

Voyager was the first Star Trek series i saw on television in 1999, when i was like 12 years or something. It’s because of Voyager i began watching DS9, and then eventually TNG, and Enterprise, which i also loved. I think there are only some episodes of TOS that i havent watched yet, but it all started for me with Star Trek Voyager, and that’s why Voyager is my favorite series.

Voyager at it’s worst, for me, was Gilligan’s Island in space (I never watched lost in space) and, in later seasons The Doctor and Seven Hour. There were interesting ideas on paper in the beginning — maquis crew, bad boy pilot ((making him nick Locarno would have been a lot more interesting), er, neelix? but they were abandoned pretty quickly (except Neelix, alas). It could have gone dark and arc-y : factions of the crew wanting to settle down somewhere, others wanting to continue, infighting, real maquis/starfleet conflicts… But it had some good episodes and, yep, good effects. The Lost guys said they always knew, generally, How it was going to end — not so much with voyager.

On the subject of the whole Jeri Ryan thing, was that I think, Mulgrew was trying to be polite about Ryan’s casting, and didn’t want to just go into that Ryan was only brought into the show, because she was Brannon Braga’s girlfriend at the time, and he was just doing his usual fan-baiting by showing off what he was tapping and “the sad Trekkies were not”.
Plus, on top of that, UPN was devolving into a network that catered to the wrestling/ tits and ass fans with low IQ levels, and the network execs knew that that was the core audience they wanted to zero in on, for maximum advertising revenue

TNG definitely the best series, for establishing canon and expanding the whole ST Universe.

DS9 with a darker theme but excellent storytelling because so many episodes were related, from season 5 till the end you felt like it was all one big episode. The War story was also introduced in a way that made sense, a competing power from another part of the galaxy. Genetically engineered servants, Vorta and Jem Hadar (brilliant). The only flaws were the character development like Odo & Kira, Worf & Dax, Bashir and Leeta. Those were the really bad episodes that seemed more like 90210 than Star Trek.

Voyager is also an excellent show and there are some really good episodes, but it just had these killer flaws right from the beginning, characters like “neelix” who serve no point whatsoever in the story telling, they had to assign him as a ‘chef’. Then “kes” as a nurse. My only regret is that they didn’t get rid of them both much earlier. Seven of Nine ‘was’ a good character despite the sex appeal, she really did the part well.

Enterprise, Horrible horrible show that should’ve been cancelled much earlier than season 4. I mean come on, the “Xindi” with the five racies, one of them like a wale? loool – very very silly. It was really disappointing cause I think they were doing that season about the ‘expanse’ and sadly a mildly good idea turned into a load of BS. And don’t even get me started about those lousy characters who wouldn’t last five minutes on the “real” Enterprise.

TOS had the memorable characters, but it’s hard to watch the series again because the production is so old. Don’t get me wrong I have it on Bluray and enjoyed a lot of the episodes, but even remastered the show is still a bit silly. I will say that it was excellent story telling especially for it’s time.

I remember being really excited when Voyager first came along. New interesting looking ship (reminded me of the Excelcior). New aliens. I was never a purist who though that the original series was the only one you needed to watch, I enjoyed TNG, I really liked DS9; I thought the writing and the characters were more developed than any of the other series. So when it came to Voyager I was perfectly willing to accept this latest offering.

The characters were never fully developed. When I say that, I mean certainly some of the characters evolved. The doctor and Neelix consistently got really good episodes and That episode (title escapes me) where the doctor has to deal with working with the programe of a Cardassian War Criminal was a master stroke. I don’t think the others were ever really developed, even Seven’s exploration of her humanity seemed contrived when compared to a much better exploration by Data or again the Doctor. That’s nothing against Jeri Ryan, I don’t think she was given the script.

You see the same problems as you would later see with Enterprise, lack of character development, lets introduce as many weird new alians as possible thus giving us not as much time as the other series gave to exploring philisophical questions. You can’t even claim that it was the most action packed series (DS9 wins there again).

What really bugged me though was the fact that they made the Borg about as scary as the Klingons. Think of TNG, they were easily the biggest, baddest most horrifying race in the galaxy. First Contact made them even more terrifying, I was ten when I saw it and I had nightmares about them. But Voy made it pretty simple to destroy a cube. There was no longer any tension or danger when dealing with them. Even that green light they bathed Borg scenes just seemed to take something away from the fright factor.

Voy, I think, signaled the start of something going wrong with the Fanchise. I agree with Mulgrew’s word saturation. There was a rush to come out a new series as opposed to stopping and thinking about a story arch or a direction.

98 – You’re totally right; Tom Paris should have been Nick Locarno. And Vorik the Vulcan should have been Taurik from TNG. But it’s a telling sign of how, as Mulgrew said, “oversaturated” Star Trek had become. Those characters were given new names so the show wouldn’t have to pay the writers who originally created Locarno and Vorik, and so we’re stuck with two wierd dopplegangers instead.

The Voyager casting could have worked out better as well – not necessarily in the case of Genvieve Bujold as Janeway – I think we can all agree that in the end that would have been a turd of a portrayal. Yet originally the characters of Tuvok and Chakotay were to be cast with older males – which, with a strong actor as Janeway, would have classed up that series considerably. Instead, we ended up with a cast heavy on soap opera vets and TV workhorse actors, who just didn’t make the material as interesting as it could have been.

Most people saw right through the “T and A” ratings grab that Jeri Ryan’s casting represented. I can totally understand why Kate would have been unhappy with them doing that. Here was the first ship Captained by a woman that had other strong female roles (B’lana was awesome) and along comes a second-skin silver catsuited pair of breasts suggesting that the show needed a sexpot instead of smart, strong woman to succeed.

To her vast credit Jeri Ryan’s acting skills quickly overcame that limited introduction. Seven of Nine became a hugely interesting and nuanced character and some of the best episodes explored her difficulty in discovering what it meant to be human. In retrospect it was a very fortune addition to the cast even if the initial studio motive was bigger boobs=bigger ratings.

Some days i flip-flop between which series i like the Voyager but compared to the rest it is near the bottom Voyager started off good but then my favourite character disappeared at the beginning of season 4 for some borg drone with a tight silver outfit.
1 Star trek: tng/ Star trek: Tos
2 Star trek: Deep space Nine
3 Star trek: Voyager
4 The horrible Star Trek Enterprise….
Some days i like to watch Elaan of troyius (Tos) or high ground the episode that picard punches a terrorist on his bridge.

I don’t think kate was saying that star trek female characters need to be portrayed as asexual. I think what she is saying (but unfortunately alot of the idiots missed this) is that there is a tasteful way of portraying sexuality without magnifying a pair of breasts in a tight cat suit. The latter of which she is quite correct in pointing out the sexist nature of. Janeway was not an asexual character by any means. She is seen projecting a romantic side in many episodes. But part of the point of star trek is to show that the human race is not governed by sexuality. That it has evolved to control impulses, not suppress them. This means humans are still sexual, on their own terms, not for the mere sake of it. It’s called acting mature.

Favorite series for me will always be DS9(if someone else like others more…more power too you).My problem with Seven was not her looks or the fact they wanted to throw sex into the show(even though I do think they could have been a little less BAM in your face with that costume of hers).It was more of the part every time after that when they ran into some thing it was always “Seven do you know what this is?” “Yes Captain…the Borg assimilated/encountered….this species/phenomenon and called it…*rattle of some numbers*.” It was like no one else on the show needed to study or figure anything out anymore on their own….just turn to Seven.

I hate to say this, but one of the main reasons I watched was I had a huge crush on Janeway. No sexuality? Bwa-hahahaha! Nice try, Mulgrew. That character was (expletive) sexy, and she was precisely because she was clever, quick, a little flirty and two steps ahead of the other characters. That is what I find sexy personally, and…well, I’m not going to confess my private thoughts here. But suffice it to say, Seven of Nine was a generic blonde in an outfit that was too tight. I found her boring. I would have matched….err…wits…with Janeway any day. LOL. No comparison. I guess it’s all in what you find sexy.

IMO Voyager had the most original and imaginative plots. I found SNG to be preachy and too full of message episodes. The old saw about getting your messages from Western Union still applies–which reveals how old that comment is. I’d rate STV as my favorite.

I think VOY was the best ST ever. I love the whole concept.
I really enjoy watching a sexy Seven of Nine, but not just because the way she looks, I think the whole O’Campa Jennifer Lien Story was really dumb.
Voyager was fine until Jeri came on board. After that, it was amazing.

I have to admit that after watching TNG, DS9 just didn’t do it for me (at the time). Later I went back and reviewed the series and it has become second in my personal favorite list (TNG being first). DS9 gave us an insight into the different alien cultures in the Star Trek universe that none of the other Treks have done. With the revelations of the Cardassian, Bejoran, and Ferengi cultures I think DS9 deserves a high rating in the Star Trek universe.

As for 7 of 9, the decision to add her to the show was clearly sexual pandering – that being said I think she did a fine job with her character but Voyager was not one the series I liked the best. But to those who are upset over 7 of 9’s sexuality – have you seen some of the DS9 episodes with Kira? Nana Visitor’s character was clearly overtly sexual in many of the episodes – but because she was also a strong character in her own right (sex was an addition to her character, not a crutch) I think it worked far better than 7 of 9.